well, the 1st thing that caught my eye about this school was its 99th percentile selectivity rating in princeton's review, and i was like...WHAT?!?!? that's ivy league. so i know it's got a great location, good reputation, amazing academics...but REALLYREALLYREALLY hyper-conservative. if that's your thing.

I'm headed to the law school in August. The undergrad campus is beautiful. It does seem as if they have a very strong alumni network, as well as very successful alums. In some ways, it is similar to Williams: rural location, lovely campus, talented student body, very loyal alums, small class sizes.

VMI is in the same town - right next door. Lexington is in the mountains of Virginia - very scenic. The town itself is small, about 8,000 people. Not many people save for students. Lexington itself isn't too small - there is a drive-in theatre, acting troupe, many restaurants, lots of things like kayaking, canoeing, horseback riding (Virginia Horse Center is in the town), hiking, a Wal-Mart, a Krogers, CVS, that sort of thing. Now, Lexington and Buena Vista (town next door) really are the biggest towns around... which means that the nearest mall is an hour away... nearest Target, an hour away, you get the point.

I've heard that W&L is conservative, but I don't think that it is significantly more conservative than the general population. That does make it very conservative by college standards. W&L started accepting women in 1986, I think.

I did hear that the undergrads were rated among the top 10 happiest students. When I walked through the town, I saw a lot of them in houses (frats and sororities - but lovely and quiet) playing badmitton on the lawns.

I'm very excited to apply to W&L this fall. In fact, it's probably my "# 1." I'm a little worried about the emphasis that they seem to place on extracurricular activities during the admissions process because mine aren't as impressive as they could be, but I can wish.

I found out about the school through the College Board and Princeton Review advanced searches. W&L came back as my most compatible on both sites (although I was sad to see PR mark it as a reach).